A wealthy liberal activist launched a national ad campaign Friday morning calling for Trump’s impeachment, which has run even on a conservative program…
Trump goes after Tom Steyer for impeachment ad
hmmm
What goes through my my mind when I read the news with my morning coffee. …Or for the Simon's Rockers in the group, this is my response journal.
A wealthy liberal activist launched a national ad campaign Friday morning calling for Trump’s impeachment, which has run even on a conservative program…
Trump goes after Tom Steyer for impeachment ad
hmmm
Instead, she refers to an early 1900s classified ad from polar explorer Ernest Shackleton, which applies equally to both sexes. “Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success.”
Getting to and living on Mars will be hell on your body
wild
There’s A Glaring Hole In Trump’s Plan To Fight Opioid AddictionHe’s not directing any new funding to it. In fact, he wants to cut spending.
There’s A Glaring Hole In Trump’s Plan To Fight Opioid Addiction | HuffPost
Of course.
Senators are introducing a law that would require Trump to get Congressional approval to attack Pyongyang.
Democrats Work To Stop Trump From Launching Nuclear Strike on North Korea
hmmm
Kenyan police clashed with protesters in opposition strongholds Thursday as the nation voted for a new president for the second time in three months.
Kenya election: Police clash with opposition supporters – CNN
hmmm
The first modern humans may have emerged up to 350,000 years ago—170,000 years earlier than previously thought. Analysis of ancient DNA has allowed scientists to trace back the ancestry of people from South Africa to determine when our ancestors split from other hominin species. Their findings consistently point to an early date of divergence, between 350,000 and 260,000 years ago.
…Their dating estimates also fit with the fossil record. At least two or three other Homo species are known to have lived in southern Africa during this time. Furthermore, these dates with recent fossil evidence uncovered in Morocco. Scientists found remains from five Homo sapiens individuals that date back to 300,000 years, raising major questions about where the “cradle of humanity” really was.
Study author Carina Schlebusch, also from Uppsala University, said: “Both paleo-anthropological and genetic evidence increasingly points to multi-regional origins of anatomically modern humans in Africa, i.e. Homo sapiens did not originate in one place in Africa, but might have evolved from older forms in several places on the continent with gene flow between groups from different places.”
Ancient Fossils Reveal the First Humans Emerged 170,000 Years Earlier than We Thought
hmmm
A federal grand jury approved the first charges as part of the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
…CNN did note, however, that sources confirmed anyone charged will likely be taken into custody as early as Monday.
Report: Charges filed in Mueller investigation into Russian collusion
hmmmm
Survivors react angrily to an academic’s suggestion that some wartime sex slaves were not coerced.
South Korea professor ‘mentally stressed’ comfort women – BBC News
hmmm
Nearly 100,000 Granite Staters head to Massachusetts, a number that’s grown from nearly 75,000 in 1990.
Census: 1 in 5 Granite Staters head elsewhere for a paycheck | New Hampshire
hmmm
Catalonia’s parliament declares independence but Madrid imposes direct rule over the region.
Catalans declare independence as Madrid imposes direct rule – BBC News
hmmm
It accuses the International Criminal Court of deliberately targeting Africans for prosecution.
Burundi leaves International Criminal Court amid row – BBC News
hmmm
Recognition abroad for Mu Sochua’s human-rights work hasn’t always translated into political power at home. As a political crackdown in Cambodia continues, she’s been presented with unprecedented pressures – but perhaps new opportunities, as well.
Amid Cambodia crackdown, this leader fled. But she hasn’t given up on change – CSMonitor.com
hmmmm
A deal reached between the government and a small Montana energy company located in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s hometown prohibits the government from reviewing labor costs or profits related to the company’s relief efforts in Puerto Rico, according to a leaked copy of the contract.
A copy of the deal highlighted by reporter Ken Klippenstein reveals that the government isn’t allowed to “audit or review the cost and profit elements” under the agreement, allowing the company greater discretion and secrecy for how it spends the $300 million to restore power to the island. Puerto Rico is rebuilding after two major hurricanes wiped out most of the island’s electrical grid.
Whitefish Energy contract bars government from auditing deal | TheHill
sigh….
Campaigners say the case demonstrates a culture in Ghana that shields sex attackers.
Ghana investigation after child rape ‘pardon’ – BBC News
Aghhhhhhhh
“We cannot be silent while millions of people continue to endure these conditions.”
Nurses returning from Puerto Rico accuse the federal government of leaving people to die – Vox
Rrrrghhhhhhhhhh
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) introduced copycat legislation that failed last year in Ohio. King’s anti-choice bill would amount to a total ban on abortion care nationwide.
Total Abortion Ban Debuts in Congress – Rewire
sigh…
House Republicans announced that in a week’s time on Nov. 1, they’ll hold the first hearing a bill that would ban abortions after six weeks at the federal level, with no exceptions for rape or incest. [emphasis: mine]
If it becomes law, physicians who perform abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected — generally around six weeks into a pregnancy — would be eligible for a five-year prison term.
What Is The Heartbeat Protection Act? Republicans’ 6-Week Abortion Ban Bill Has A Hearing Date
“If you cut that [corporate] tax rate to 15 percent, it will pay for itself many times over. … This will bring in probably $1.5 trillion net by itself.”
That’s wishful thinking. So is most Republican rhetoric around tax cutting. In reality, there’s no evidence that a tax cut now would spur growth.
…Moreover, GOP tax mythology usually leaves out other factors that also contributed to growth in the 1980s: First was the sharp reduction in interest rates by the Federal Reserve. The fed funds rate fell by more than half, from about 19 percent in July 1981 to about 9 percent in November 1982. Second, Reagan’s defense buildup and highway construction programs greatly increased the federal government’s purchases of goods and services. This is textbook Keynesian economics.
…I’m not sure how many Republicans even know anymore that Reagan raised taxes several times after 1981. His last budget showed that as of 1988, the aggregate, cumulative revenue loss from the 1981 tax cut was $264 billion and legislated tax increases brought about half of that back.
…Despite huge tax cuts almost annually during the George W. Bush administration that cost the Treasury trillions in revenue, according to the Congressional Budget Office, growth collapsed in the first decade of the 2000s. Real GDP rose just 19.5 percent, well below its ’90s rate.
I helped create the GOP tax myth. Trump is wrong: Tax cuts don’t equal growth. – The Washington Post
hmmm
“Am I shocked, surprised, or [finding] it sleazy that the Democrats would have wanted to get potential incriminating information about financials or sex against Donald Trump? No,” Kayyem said. “Did the same thing happen on the other side? Yes.”
…Kayyem speculated that the pace of stories critical of Hillary Clinton represents “a recognition by the White House team” that Mueller is getting close to something substantive as a result of his investigation.
…“This is so close to the Oval Office now, if not in the Oval Office, that all of this [dossier news] to me is just background noise to what Mueller is going to deliver,” she said. “This is more than an obstruction charge. There is something big underlying the obstruction.”
hmmmmm
Federal agents arrested the founder of a major drug company in an early-morning raid Thursday on charges stemming from an alleged scheme to get doctors to prescribe a powerful opioid to patients who don’t need it.
Drug company founder John Kapoor arrested for alleged opioid scheme – CBS News
Note to lawmakers: Stopping the opioid crisis isn’t about education and it certainly isn’t about doubling down on addiction treatments with high rates of recidivism. If you want to stop something, go after the source of the problem.
A computer server crucial to a lawsuit against Georgia election officials was quietly wiped clean by its custodians just after the suit was filed, The Associated Press has learned.
The server’s data was destroyed July 7 by technicians at the Center for Elections Systems at Kennesaw State University, which runs the state’s election system.
The server data could have revealed whether Georgia’s most recent elections were compromised by hackers. The plaintiffs contend results of both last November’s election and a special June 20 congressional runoff— won by Kemp’s predecessor, Karen Handel — cannot be trusted.
…”I don’t think you could find a voting systems expert who would think the deletion of the server data was anything less than insidious and highly suspicious,”
…The problem was first discovered by Atlanta security researcher Logan Lamb while doing online research in August 2016. He informed the election center’s director at the time, noting in an email “there is a strong possibility your site is already compromised.”
Based on his review of the emails, Lamb believes that electronic polling books could have been altered in Georgia’s biggest counties to add or drop voters or to scramble their data. Malicious hackers could have altered the templates of voting machine memory cards to skew results. An attacker could even have potentially modified “ballot-building” files to corrupt the outcome, said Lamb, who works at Atlanta-based security firm Bastille Networks.
APNewsBreak: Georgia election server wiped after suit filed – ABC News
hmmmm
I think it’s great some of the Congressional GOP is growing a spine, granted it seems to be the ones with nothing to lose, but still! A step forward none-the-less.
On the other hand…
Flake voted:
– to repeal the ban against banks being able to forced victims into mandatory arbitration
– disaster relief to PR, disaster relief for victims of Harvey
– to repeal ACA/Obamacare
– to sanction weapons sale to Saudi Arabia
– repeal rules requiring energy companies to reduce pollution
– to repeal rules preventing internet companies from selling info on their customers
…And that’s just this year.
Not like we’re losing a morass compass for the Senate or anything.
–
Flake said that he can work with Trump on repealing Obamacare, curtailing regulations and even immigration reform, where the Arizona Republican has backed policies well to the left of Trump’s positions.
…”I’ll work with him when we need to but also push back when I need to,” said Flake.
..”There will obviously be areas of disagreement, but there are also lots of areas of agreement,” Flake said.
…On immigration — which Trump said on Thursday would be a priority in his administration — Flake said he’s optimistic, even though “there’s not going to be a 700-mile wall. He knows that.”
…Flake, who was a member of the bipartisan Gang of Eight that labored for months to strike an immigration deal, …hopes to work with Trump on border security, e-Verify, guest worker programs and even undocumented immigrants.
Flake has no fear of retribution from Trump – POLITICO
Bahahahahaha, isn’t delusional naivete adorable sometimes? Like Trump knows how to work with people! Lolololololol
Trump said the press makes him seem more “uncivil” than he really is.
Trump Wants America to Know He’s a ‘Very Intelligent’ Ivy Leaguer
Pretty big talk for someone who started his college career at Fordham.